Add Category Index to the Homepage or Blog in Sprout & Spoon

Please note: This article is specifically for the Sprout and Spoon theme. 

Sprout & Spoon offers a Category Index Shortcode which you can use to display beautiful rows of grid items highlighting your latest posts or even a particular category of posts. The shortcode is generally used to add the category index to a post or static page by copying and pasting its shortcode into the text editor box. 

To learn how to create a Category Index and insert it into a post or page's body, you can follow the instructions outlined in this article: Sprout & Spoon's Category Index Shortcode.

Alternatively, if you wish to display a Category Index on your homepage or blog page which contains your published post feed, this is also possible by inserting a bit of code into a theme's "index.php" file. 

First, create your desired Category Index Shortcode (for instructions on how to do this, please reference the tutorial article link above). This may include a title, which category in particular you'd wish to display, the number of grid posts for the row, etc. 

For example, it may look like this:

[sp_index title="Featured Desserts for Autumn" cat="desserts" amount="3" cols="3" display_date="no" display_title="yes"]

Next, navigate to WP Dashboard > Appearance > Editor > and open up the theme file titled "index.php". 

On Line 25 down from the top of the document, you'll see this line of code:

<div id="main" <?php if(get_theme_mod('sprout_spoon_sidebar_homepage') == true) : ?>class="fullwidth"<?php endif; ?>>

On the blank line directly BELOW this line of code, you can copy and paste the following code:

<div class="post-entry">
    <?php echo do_shortcode('YOUR-CATEGORY-INDEX-SHORTCODE-HERE'); ?>
</div>

Please remember to replace the dummy YOUR-CATEGORY-INDEX-SHORTCODE-HERE on the second line of that code with your own category index shortcode. When finished, it will look similar to this:

<div class="post-entry">
    <?php echo do_shortcode('[sp_index title="Featured Desserts for Autumn" cat="desserts" amount="3" cols="3" display_date="no" display_title="yes"]'); ?>
</div>

Note: If you would like to add more than 1 category index shortcode stacked upon each other, you can use the following template. Just be sure to add a separate category index shortcode onto each of the "php echo do_shortcode" lines. 

<div class="post-entry">
    <?php echo do_shortcode('[sp_index title="Featured Desserts for Autumn" cat="desserts" amount="3" cols="3" display_date="no" display_title="yes"]'); ?>
    <?php echo do_shortcode('[sp_index title="Featured Vegetarian Recipes" cat="vegetarian" amount="4" cols="4" display_date="no" display_title="yes"]'); ?>
</div>

Save changes to the file when finished.